I broke my promise to post at least once a day the last few days because I took on an emergency freelance case translating subtitles for a Taiwanese film trying to make a film festival deadline. It was a brutal grind, a 110-minute film with around 14,000 Chinese characters to translate within basically a 24-hour read more

I understand I have it backwards. I watched The Hunger Games, which I thoroughly enjoyed, then decided to check out its Japanese predecessor, which many say Suzanne Collins’ novel takes from quite liberally. I must admit, for the longest time I thought Battle Royale, the movie, was based on the manga (of which I had read more

In my humble opinion, George Costanza (Seinfeld) is the greatest sitcom character of all time. And naturally, the actor that plays George, Jason Alexander, is my favourite sitcom actor (and probably TV actor) of all time. And so when I found out that Jason Alexander’s Comedy Spectacular was returning to Sydney, I didn’t hesitate to read more

I’ve already reviewed Stephen King’s On Writing (here) and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird (here). The third book that makes up this holy trinity of writing bibles is Noah Lukeman’s The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile. As the title suggests, The First Five Pages is all about how not to get rejected read more

You are browsing the Blog for French Open 2010.

In the most unexpected result since he ousted 4-time defending champion Rafael Nadal in the French Open last year (becoming the first, and so far, only man to beat Rafa at the French), Robin Soderling delivered another shock bomb today when he defeated world no. 1 Roger Federer, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4.

It was sweet revenge for Soderling on a couple of levels — first, he had never beaten Federer in 12 previous attempts; and second, he lost to Federer in the French Open final last year (after which he said that before the match that he “yokingly” said that “nobody beats me 10 times in a row” — of course, he lost another couple of times to Federer after that, extending the streak to 12).

The stunning upset in the quarterfinals also brought an end to Federer’s remarkable 23 consecutive appearances in Grand Slam semifinals. The next closest is Ivan Lendl with 10. And if Nadal wins the French (and let’s face it, he probably will), Federer will lose his no. 1 ranking, robbing him of the chance to tie Pete Sampras’ record of 286 weeks at that spot.

Good for Soderling. All streaks have to end some time. This French Open has now become a redemptive quest for Rafa — or perhaps the crowning of the official giant slayer in men’s tennis?